Comments on: Arrachera: What and When?

By: Rachel Laudan

Rachel Laudan — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 00:36:29 +0000

Lucky you having the markets so close. What I am not clear about is whether the marinade is extra to the tenderizer. Can’t imagine un-tenderized arrachera. Tell me what it’s like.

By: Kailyn

Kailyn — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 01:08:46 +0000

In my area there are a number of good Latino markets. My favorite, Mi Pueblo, sells arrachera at the butcher’s counter. You can either get it with or without marinade. And because it is an actual butcher’s counter, it is not prepackaged.

I bought it because when I have had it in restaurants in Mexico, it was always mouth-wateringly tender.

By: Rachel Laudan

Rachel Laudan — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 01:48:31 +0000

Corin, glad to find you on my blog. And even gladder that you have found culinary ecstasy with arrachera!

By: Corin White

Corin White — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 19:28:59 +0000

Never was a steak man before. Recently, at my favorite Mexican Cantina, the waitress gave me Arrachera with my Huevos Rancheros by mistake. I de-voured it.

I went next door to the attached market and bought a lb of it. You just can’t go wrong with this stuff. My favorite way to prepare: I sprinkle it with melted butter, salt, pepper and a some herbs and throw it on the grill for a few minutes.

I’ve been in culinary ecstacy ever since.

By: Rachel Laudan

Rachel Laudan — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 01:46:15 +0000

Jorge, Thanks so much for that clarification. Very helpful. I would just love some of that freshly cut arrachera. I will investigate more about when it appeared in (say) Guanajauto.

By: Jorge

Jorge — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 04:15:29 +0000

I’m from Mexico and I have bought arrachera and eaten carne asada all my life, and not just the packaged meat from supermarkets. Here in the north of Mexico, where, as you said, cattle is raised, you can go to your neighbourhood butcher and ask him for arrachera freshly cut, and grill it without any tenderizer or chemical. I don’t really now what part of the country you describe, but in any town or city of the cattling states, there are all kinds of fresh meat cuts to be prepared in a carne asada, and they’ve existed for decades.

By: Karen

Karen — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 13:13:12 +0000

Cryovac was of great assistance to the restaurant business. The labor and quality shifts it enabled allowed many mid-range restaurants to open. It also moved the restaurant equipment manufacturers to develop new equipment that eventually led to the upscale ‘sous-vide’ methods now used by high-end chefs engaging in use of new cooking technologies (along with not a few mid-range cooks who do the same quietly without fanfare).

By: Ji-Young Park

Ji-Young Park — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 17:41:33 +0000

Lots of seasoned meat in cryovac packages in the States. Trader Joe’s sells carne asada and Korean bbq in sealed wrap.

Cryovac packaged foods were a boon to the Korean pickle industry. Something about the amount of pressure applied when sealing effecting texture.

By: Karen

Karen — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 12:17:08 +0000

We have that stuff here in the States. Sometimes it is apparent that it is seasoned and/or tenderized. In an equal amount of cases, it is not apparent without doing a really good search of the packaging.

In the second category I’ve noticed two sources that seem to be most prevalent in marketing/selling this stuff: WalMart; and ‘home-delivery specialty meats’ companies.

In both cases this meat is actively marketed as upscale provender, and if you did not know better (as a cook) you would not know that you were paying a high price for something that is a rather weird substance.

These meats have to be cooked exactly as the instructions on the package describe or the chemicals start to seep out, giving the entire dish a very strange flavor. The most successful ones are the ones designed for the big American Grill. Grrrrr. Throw that sub-quality steak on, get a blackened surface, drink a lot of beer and who really knows the difference? This is a market accustomed to burgers pre-formed and blackened into sawdust chips served on cotton-ball buns, a market that takes a hot dog (frankfurter) to also blacken it into something resembling a dried up dog turd (just a bit smaller), which is then eaten as if it is a normal everyday occurance.

The consumers seem happy with the products, those that I’ve seen using them. I tried them twice, both times by mistake due to hurrying – and I had to figure out what was wrong with the stuff by getting out a microscope to read the labeling.

Water-injected method, of course, too. People now pay a per-pound price for water when they buy meat.

By: Donavon Keithley

Donavon Keithley — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 01:22:48 +0000

Interesting. For what it’s worth, there is a recipe for “Arrachera al Carbon” in Bayless’ Authentic Mexican, original edition (1987), and he writes: “Though arrachera (‘skirt steak’) is commonly used only in northeastern Mexico (especially around Monterrey), cooking thin sheets of beef over charcoal is popular throughout the North and everywhere Northerners have set up taquerías.”

Looking forward to the fajitas story!